Filled fibrous material



March 20, 1934. r G. E. PELTON 1,951,306

FILLED FIBROUS MATERIAL Filed Aug. 16. 1932 7 lnventor Patented Mar. 20, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE I 'ILLED FIBROUS MATERIAL George E. Pelton, Alexandria, Va.

Application August 16, 1932, Serial No. 629,078

7 Claims. (Cl. 91-18) This invention relates generally to filled fibrous materials and methods of making the same and relates to improvements in thin filled materials of silk material, to filled materials having a base of silk and linen or cotton, and to filled and coated paper and it relates generally to any uses for such materials, including use as tracing cloth, adhesive material, mending and patching material, material for use in making book covers and holders for insurance policies and it relates to thin filled materials in the form of narrow ribbons for use as ink carriers which are substantially non-absorbent, and it relates to thin filled materials in any form; it relates also to the use of long fibre silk materials made substantially non-absorbent by the use of filling and impregnating material and it also relates to filled spun silk materials for various uses.

One object of the present invention is to produce improved ink carrier ribbons or sheets or ink-supplying members which are dry, uninked, substantially non-ink-absorbent and which may be in the form of such ribbons as are described inmy copending application of January 26, 1932, Serial No. 588,932. The present invention provides new methods and apparatus used in producing such improved ink-carrier members for t such uses and other uses.

- said application as being for use in connection with a typing machine which also uses a writing ribbon and which has ..two spools for winding both the writing ribbon and the ink-carrier ribbon or ink-supply ribbon wherein the latter ribbon receives ink from an ink device, wick-wheel, wick, thin-edged disk or rotary member, orifice or other inking means connected with an 'inkwick or ink reservoir and transmits said ink to the surface of said writing ribbon.

Another object of the present invention is to provide improved tracing cloth material which shall be more efficient than present tracing cloth.

Another object is to provide improved filled materials using coated base materials made in accordance with my copending application filed May 5,"192'l, Serial No. 189,180.

Another object is to provide better, more ellicient tracing clothof pure silk warp threads and either pure silk or linen weft threads, which can be sold in competition with the best quality of imported tracing cloth.

In some respects the, present invention is an improvement of the. materials for carrying ink described in the copending application filed January 26, 1932. In some respects this application is a continuation as to all common subject They are described in matter of said application and as to my copending applications: I

Serial No. 189,180 filed May 5, 1927; Serial No. 337,820 filed Feb. 6, 1929; Serial No. 567,111 filed Oct. 5, 1931; Serial No. 620,045 filed June 29, 1932. 1

In producing the filled fibrous materials of the present invention I utilize materials and processes and apparatus of the copending applications to some extent. For example, I make use, for certain filled materials, of the base materials of co- 1 pending application 567,111 and in producing certain finishes of filled fibrous materials I make use of the apparatus described in two of the copending applications.

This invention relates to improvements in thin, filled materials including materials which are filled with glue or gum or nitrocellulose or pyroxylin or cellulose ester materials of various compositions, or starch compounds, or tracing cloth compounds, or it relates to improvements in such materials filled with one or more of the foregoing materials or so filled and later coated with any suitable coating material, including the coating materials of the copending applications hereinabove set out. I may use pyroxylin materials, with or without castor oil, or I may use pyroxylin adhesive material or gums or glues or other adhesive materials. I may coat one surface and leave the substance of the body portion oi! the base material absorbent after said coating and then fill the body portion with any suitable material, or I may do this and then add one or more coats of any of the foregoing materials or of any of the coating materials of said copending applications, to either one or both races of said base material.

To enable others skilled in the art to fully comprehend'tne present invention and the improvements made in providing filled silk or paper or other fibrous materials for any use, a-drawing 5 :ot the base material, such as silk, silk in'combination with cotton or linen, linen, cotton, paper etc.

The base material contacts with a body of coating or filling material as the base or web is moved from the supply roll 13 of Fig. 1 and said base or web is moved across the discharge opening 11 of the container 10 and under the blade 16 which is within the discharge opening, and which is in light surface contact with the moving web or base and said base or web moves under the blade 160 (at the rear wall of the container 10) said blade being to remove the surplus coating or filling material, and then the web or base passes over the guide roll 14 and is then moved through the drying or evaporating chamber 15 by the tentering apparatus 54, which acts to hold the base or-web tight and taut and perfectly smooth, and the base or web is then moved along over the guide roll 52 and under the idler roll 55 and is wound up in any suitable manner, for example by a winder such as shown at 53.

As stated in detail in copending application 620,045, I may use a two-ply scraper apparatus .instead of the single blade 16c and I may remove the outer blade ofthe two-ply scraper and substitute a blade which has a thicker or thinner, or coarser or finer edge.

The discharge opening 11 of the container 10 may be widened or made very narrow, even as narrow as one-eighth inch, to give the necessary accurate and uniform width of contact and wide range of widths of contact for various requirements in coating and filling the various webs or base materials. The apparatus shown in Fig. 2 for said coating and filling of fibrous materials of paper, silk, cotton, linen, and mixtures of the fibres of any of these, or mixtures of any of these fibres with any other fibres, including artificial silk fibres or threads and spun silk fibres or threads and long fibres of natural silk, is particularly adapted to work requiring apparatus of high precision and accuracy where it is desirable that any kind of coating or filling requirement may be carefully fulfilled ranging from a coating on a tightly woven silk material (which may be all long fibre silk, or all spun silk, or all artificial silk, or it may be long fibre silk warp with spun silk or cotton or linen or artificial .silk for the weft material) which is a superimposed, overlying, infinitely thin, single layer surface coating less than one-five-thousandths of an inch thick (or on a paper material which is formed of spun silk or othersilk fibres such as described in copending application 620,045 and which is very highly absorbent, which leaves the body portion of said material unaffected and highly absorbent) to a coating on an inexpensive loosely woven cotton material which is an impregnating or filling coating applied with a contact of the coating solution of as much as" six inches and applied at a very slow speed, for example twenty-five feet per minute, giving ample opportunity to fill the cotton material completely with said solution. Said above described apparatus is for providing materials, completely filled when finished, which carry an even and exactly uniform amount of filling material or coating and filling material over and within their entire area and substance so that every square inch is like every other.

The tentering apparatus is driven by a, variable speed motor 56 and said tentering apparatus will move the base or web material through the evapcrating and drying chamber at any desired speed of from less than twenty-five feet per minute up to a maximum speed of slightly over five hundred feet per minute.

I prefer to treat a large roll of wide material made up of not less than ten pieces of not less than 288 yds. each, neatly fastened together so as to avoid any improper or imperfect winding later. The ends are first pasted together with great care and then sewed across the pasted joints to make them very strong. The joints must be perfectly smooth in order to avoid wrinkling the base or web material and also to wind the finished, filled material perfectly smooth and free from the slightest hint of a crease or wrinkle or fold. It is impossible to use tracing cloth that is wrinkled.

If the material is silk, I always fasten an inexpensive, filled very loosely woven, flimsy, lowthread-count cotton material at the outer end of the big roll of silk, and always use a piece of said filled cotton material which is ten yards longer than is required to reach from the supply roll 13 through the apparatus and to the winder 53. I also fasten a similar length of leader cloth as it is called at the other end of the silk material so that when the entire roll of silk has been processed and dried and wound up, the apparatus will be left threaded ready for the next operation or run. Another object in using the two lengths of leader cloth is to maintain the silk cloth abs'olutely taut and smooth and tight as it is processed and not to waste any of the silk cloth at the start of the run or operation nor at the last as the silk cloth pulls off the roll and goes through the apparatus. If there was no leader cloth to hold back the last of the silk material, it would go thru the apparatus loose and would be ruined for a long distance from the end and would cause trouble to the tentering equipment. By holding the silk under the required tension at all times right from the beginning and by using the tentering apparatus as above described for moving the silk material through the apparatus to the winder, it is possible to provide material that is absolutely even in every way and that has a coating or filling or both a coating and filling that is uniform as to'its make-up throughout the area of the goods.

In Fig. 2, the base or web is drawn from a supply roll 13, moved across and past the discharge opening 11 of container 10, and over a guide roll 14, and the supply roll and the roll 14 are so disposed and the base or web is pulled forward under such great tension as to cause the base to be kept taut and tight and in contact with the edges of the discharge opening 11. In Fig. 2, pull rolls are shown for moving the web or base material from the supply roll through the coating or filling apparatus and over the guide roll 14 and through the drying or evaporating chamber 15, for drying the base 11' web and evaporating any solvent material in the coating or filling or sizing material used. The rolls 14a travel at any desired speed from slightly under 25 ft. per minute up to a maximum of slightly over 500 ft. per

-minute according to the requirements of the particular job of coating or filling and the cloth or paper or other base material used. Said pull rolls 1.4a are driven by an adjustable speed motor and the application of the coating or filling material and the drying and evaporating operations with both the equipment of Fig. 1 and of Fig. 2 are always continuous, even speed, uniform operations as it would be very injurious and in fact in some cases ruinous to ever slacken speed during a run of base material. The apparatus shown maintains absolutely even, uniform, continuous speed from the very beginning of the processing or coating or filling of the web or base material until the last yard is finished and the leader cloth begins to come through the coating or filling apparatus. The leader cloth may be used hundreds of times.

For manufacturing the improved ink-carrier or ink-supplying ribbon members of my application 588,932, I may friction calender both faces of the web or base, or only one face. This is done as described in copending application 567,111. by passing the web or base through a pair of rolls, one much larger than the other, the larger or anvil roll travelling much slower than the upper roll, which is a highly polished, solid steel roll. The lower roll may be hollow and the surface of same may be a compacted fibre material or. it may be covered with any material which will be smooth and reasonably firm and "allow of a slight cushioning action. The polished, high speed roll of solid steel, travels at a high rate of speed and polishes and compacts one surface of the web or base paper or cloth' material. 'Io friction calender the second surface also,

it is necessary to-reverse the material and re- 7 face of the cloth still and operating both rolls slowly or allowing the large, lower roll to turn the upper roll by its pressure against the upper roll, Istill polish only one face and do not in any wise injure the base or web fabric or material. For certain classes of work I use the above described rollsat slow speed for straight pressure calendering first and then follow this using the or more large heated rolls or drums for dryingv the starched material.

I then'friction calender the material with heated rolls, again and again until the required finish is achieved. I polish only oneface of the material until it has a very,

high gloss. I realize that it is old to fill cloth as above described and friction calender it but it is not old to do this with long fibre silk for treeing cloth and the resultant material is entirely different and better than other tracing cloths. It is possible to produce it as thin as .00175 of an inch in thickness and yet have the required strength. The long fibre silk has the decided advantage that its fibres runs hundreds of yards in length of uniform size and said fibres are free from joints and such material is unusually transparent and a much larger amount of the same can go in the same space. All present tracing cloth material is made of short fibres which are calendering each application of coating.

spun into threads resulting in a material which is either cotton or linen and which is thick and uneven. No cotton or linen material has ever been produced for use as the base of tracing cloth which was of uniform thickness due to the fact that the threads which compose such base material are uneven. One thread may be three times the size of the one next to it and the same thread may vary greatly in size over a distance of but a few inches. Since the threads themselves are of varying sizes, they of course absorb varying amounts of the filling compound and provide finished tracing cloth material that lacks the fineness and the transparency and the fine uniformity and evenness of silk material composed entirely of long fibre silk threads properly filled.

For certain uses and requirements, I may coat the long fibre silk tracing cloth material above described with one or more layers of pyroxylin or cellulose acetate solutions or with any of the solutions described in my copending applications. I may use a solution as follows: per cent pyroxylin cement mixed with pyroxylin solution 25%, the latter solution being composed of four parts of pyroxylin to two parts of castor oil to which is added a low-boiling point solvent, which is ethyl acetate diluted with acetone, or diluted with toluol containing not over one-fourth of one per cent of benzol. Care must be taken to keep the hands out of the toluol solution if it contains more than this percentage of benzol as benz ol is a deadly poison to most people. The pyroxylin cement is pyroxylin in a low-boiling point solvent, ethyl acetate, diluted with acetone, with gums or resins added to give added adhesion. 1 may coat with the apparatus shown in Fig. 2 with a discharge opening of only oneeighth of an inch at a speed of several hundred. feet per minute as described in my copending applications 337,820 and 620,045. The coated material must be dried thoroughly and the solvent in the coating solution completely evaporated before the web or base material is wound up. I may apply one or more coats to form an impervious coating on one or both faces of said tracing cloth material. I may apply a first very light coating and may apply several successive coats superimposed thereon, each coat thicker than the preceding coat, forming a film of any required thickness. I may apply a final coat of gum or animal glueon top of the pyroxylin film above described. Or I may apply instead of the pyroxylin film one or more coats of a cellulose acetate material followed by a final coating of pyroxylin or by a final coating of a gum or animal glue or other glue material, being careful to dry the coated material thoroughly after I may friction calender the material one or more times on one surface only or I may reverse the material and friction calendar it one or more times on the opposite surface.

Or I may use a viscose solution for the coatingmaterial or a solution of casein, or a mixture of a cellulose ester compound and resin or gum, or a solution of cellulose material and amylacetate, or I may use a solution formed by dissolvingnitro-cellulose in camphor; or I may use a solution containing 100 parts of nitro-cellulose to over 60 parts of tricresylphosphate; or I may 5 use any of the above mentioned materials and may apply one or more coats upon one or both surfaces of said tracing cloth material, or I may follow such coats or films with a layer of a coating compound comprising a celluloid compound or mixture, 9. lacquer, varnish or the like, or I may apply one or more of these latter materials directly upon the saidtracing cloth material and apply one or more coats as desired.

Or I may coat said tracing cloth material with a solution comprising 50 per cent of pyroxylin cement as above described and 50 per cent pyroxylin solution, the latter being composed of four parts of pyroxylin to five parts of castor oil, to which is added a low-boiling point solvent, which is ethyl acetate diluted with acetone, or with tpluol containing not more than A of 1% of benzol. I may apply one or more coats of this solution according to the requirements of the particular use for which the material is prepared. If it is desirable to have an impervious coating of pyroxyliri it is preferable to employ the first named formula of pyroxylin which contains much less castor oil.

For the base material for said tracing cloth I may use long fibre silk threads in the warp and cotton or linen or artificial silk or spun silk threads in the weft. Such filled material will be superior to present cotton or all linen tracing cloths due to the long fibre silk threads in the warp. The said warp should be very tightly and compactly formed, as should the weft as well. Such materials may be processed as above described.

I may treat any of the above described base materials, or an all cotton material, or an all linen material, or an all spun silk material, or any of the combinations above described, or a paper material, composed in part at least of spun silk fibres, or a paper composed in part of cotton or linen fibres, by friction calendering one face of said material one or more times until said face is very smooth and shiny, with a high polish and gloss and sheen and then using the apparatus described in Fig. 1, with a speed of not less than several hundred feet per minute and with a A; inch width of the discharge opening of the container 10 move said material from the supply roll 13 past and across the discharge opening of the container where one surface contacts with a body of cellulose ester or pyroxylin or other suitable coating material, including cellulose, said body of coating solution being exactly inch wide clear across the full width of said base or web material, and then move said material past the scraper blade 16c,- scraping off the surplus coating material and then moving the web or base acrossand over the guide and tension roll 14 and'to the tentering apparatus which grips said base or web along its selvage edges (but without injury to its edges) and holds the same taut and smooth and takes it through the drying and evaporating chamber 15 where the solvent of the coating solution is thoroughly evaporated and then moving the material by means of the winder 53 over the roll 52 and under the roll 55. The winder may be of any suitable or desirable type and it may wind the material counter-clockwise as shown in Fig. 1 at 53. or it may wind the material in a clockwise direction.

1 When winding in the latter direction, my experience has been that it is worth While to keep one end of a web of heavy, rather stifi, oiled paper or thin board material such as a first quality card-board around the winding roll of processed material for about one-third of the circumference of said roll as it winds up on' the shaft or axle of the winding equipment. The upper end of this paper board'material lies just'under the outer surface of the web and the web winds in said clockwise fashion, passing right over and across the said paper-board material during the entire operation of winding. The paper material extends into the roll of winding web a very short distance but not far enough to cause the winding web to put high tension on the paper materialso as to tear it or even wind part of it into the roll of winding web or base material. As the roll increases in diameter, this paper board material must be extended further into the roll from time to time in order to function most efficiently. This paper-board material serves the valuable purpose of insuring smooth winding, free from defects such as folds, wrinkles, curled places or creases and causes'the winding equipment to produce a perfectly smooth, tight roll of the processed material.

After this first light coating of a coating solution which includes cellulose material, I may apply one or more coats of pyroxylin material such as above described in detail, or one or more coats of any of the coating materials above mentioned, or mentioned in any one of the copending applications, but I am careful to dry the material after each application of coating material and to coat with a discharge opening of the coating container that is not more than one-half inch wide and for some of the coating materials it is preferable that the discharge opening should remain at 1/8 inch width as it was for the first coating applied as above described. All of the coats are superimposed and so applied as to leave the body portion of the base or web highly absorbent. I may use a one-ply blade for 160 or more than one-ply blade, all as described in considerable detail in application 620,045.

The base material is now covered with a film of any desired thickness on one surface, as a superimposed, superficial, overlying film which does not materially penetrate the base or web material and which does not materially reduce the absorbing capacity of said base. It is now turned over and the discharge opening is set at not less than six inches width clear across the base or web and a pyroxylin solution such as first described may be used or I may use any of the other coating and filling materials above mentioned. I move the material by means of said tentering apparatus (or any other suitable means, for example by the pull rolls 14a) and by means of the winding equipment 53, at a speed not in excess of ft. per minute past the discharge opening and past the scrapers 16 and 160 and through the drying and evaporating chamber at the necessary temperature to thoroughly evaporate the solvent of the coating and filling material and thoroughly fill the absorbent body portion of said base or web. I prefer now to friction calender or pressure calender the material. It may be calendered one or more times as desired for the required use. After calendering or before calendering, it may be given one or more coats on top of said material with which the body portion was impregnated or filled as described above. If this is done, it should be calendered with cold rollsat least two times on one or on both faces before being used for tracing cloth or for slitting into ribbons for use in accordance with my copending application 588,932 as ink-carrier ribbons, or for other uses such as hereinabove mentioned. However, if the material is to be slit into ribbons and used as an ink-carrier ribbon, it is preferable not to use a tracing cloth compound or a starch compound in the'last mentioned process where the discharge opening is six inches in width. It is pref- I so erable in this case to use a cellulose acetate material or the first pyroxylin solution described herein. It is also essential that the material should be severely Swiss or pressure calendered with calendering rolls such as above described, and then the gears reset and the material friction calendered not less than five or six times, always polishing but one surface. If a tracing cloth compound or starch compound be used in the process just described where the discharge opening is set at six inches then it is preferable for certain uses to follow this process by Swiss or pressure calendering as above described and then friction calendering and then coat on the starch compound face with one or more coats of a cellulose ester compound or with the first mentioned pyroxylin solution which contains pyroxylin cement and again Swiss calender and follow with not less than six passages of the material through the friction calendering process, always polishing the one face, which may be either one. For most uses it is preferable to have one dull surface and one polished surface. This is particularly true of tracing cloth and of the ribbons of my copending application above mentioned. In the case of the ribbons the ink is always applied by the rotary inking member of the copending application upon the polished surface and the dull surface contacts with the metal guides of the typing machine. Inpassing said ribbon around a wheel of said,machine, it is liable to slip in use if the shiny,surface is next to the metal surface of said wheel but if the dull surface is next the metal surface of the wheel no slipping will ever occur and at the same vtime it is advantageous to have the highly polished surface to receive the ink as a highly polished surface takes up less ink in a given time.

In making adhesive materials, of the improved kinds of the present invention and in making coated materials or filled materials of the present invention, I may use an absorbent or partially absorbent paper base material and use the same equipment and same processes described hereinabove. or I may use any of the base materials hereinabove mentioned, including spun silk materials.

I may friction calender the base material on one surface and then apply a surface coating superimposed upon said friction calendered surface and then may apply one or more additional coats of any of the cellulose solutions or other solutions (exclusive of the starch compounds or gum or glue materials) above mentioned. I may apply a pyroxylin or cellulose acetate solution and coat several times. I may friction calender several times after the coating has been thoroughly dried, or I may first Swiss calender and then friction calender several times. All of the coats should be applied without seriouslyimpairing the absorbency of the body portion of the base material in order that I may now reverse the material and by the process above described (wherein I used a six inch discharge opening and moved the material at uniform speed but not faster than 90 ft. per minute) but using gum or animal or other glue or other suitable adhesive material for the filling solution, fill said coated base material and scrape off the surplus material as above described and dry the material by means of heatedrolls or drums orthrougha very long drying and evaporating chamber or by other suitable means such as placing said material over racks or suitable rolls or rods and letting same dry slowly for several hours, or even for a few days if the solution of glue requires it. Or said material may be arranged on drying racks and shut up in a drying oven for a suitable length of time until thoroughly dry. After being dried, I may friction calender with heated rolls until the material is reduced to the proper and desirable thickness, being careful to always friction calender the side which has the gum or glue or other adhesive material, making. it have a high gloss.

If the base material is long fibre silk, such adhesive material will be stronger than any other adhesive material of like thickness due to the high strength of the long fibre silk threads when compactly woven as hereinabove described and such material will have high transparency unless it is purposely made opaque by adding opaque color material or opaque dyes to the base material. Or I may use any of the base materials above described which have silk in the warp or I may use an all artificial silk with improved results, being careful to use a compactly and tightly woven base material having fine (small size) threads of first quality rayon.

All of the above described adhesive materials have one or more coats of cellulose compounds or pyroxylin or other coating materials mentioned herein (exclusive of starch compounds, tracing cloth compounds which are. ink-pervious in any degree) as superficial overlying, non-impregnating, non-filling coatings or films and the body portion has been filled with gum or glue. I may always use a silk warp, and some other fibres or threads in the weft, such as cotton or linen or artificial silk, for certain requirements that call for high grade materials, but I have found that if I first give cotton cloth that is closely woven a high friction calendering on one surface and then coat as just described with a superficial, nonfilling and non-impregnating coating and then fill the body portion of the cloth with a glue or gum or other adhesive material and then friction calender again, one or more times, that the resultant material is a great improvement over present adhesive materials by reason of the in-.- creased strength and better appearance it has.

In the case of the silk materials there is another form of my adhesive material which is produced by simply filling the threads with glue or gum, using pressure rolls for this process or using the six inch discharge opening and drying the adhesive material thoroughly. I may then friction calender the material one or more times and then apply a final coating of a glue or other adhesive solution on the polished face and then I may friction calender again after drying the last application of adhesive material. It is desirable for certain requirements to first Swiss calender and then give the material as manyv as ten different trips through the friction calendering rolls so as to friction calender very highly and make the material as thin as possible. I prefer to finish in like manner all thin long fibre silk material or any of the base materials which have a silk warp even though they may have cotton or linen or artificial silk in the weft or filling. In making the long fibre silk adhesive material, it may also be made like any of the silk tracing cloths described hereinabove and then given a final film of glue or gum or other suitable adhesive material, including, if desirable, fish glue or any animal glue, and then after drying same, Swiss calendering the base material and then friction calendering as desired.

For ink-carriers it is possible to successfully use the thin silk adhesive material, especially if itvhas a pyroxylin coating on the face opposite the face carrying the adhesive or glue or gum.

For certain classes of work it may be highly desirable to use the scrapers such as described in said application 620,045 wherein the rear wall of the container 10 is a two-ply scraper, one of the blades of which can be quickly changed for a blade with a finer, thinner edge or for a blade with a thicker and coarser edge portion, and this while the container is full of filling or coating solution and without disturbing same in any way. This is because of the unique construction of the two-ply scraper whereby one scraper acts as the retaining wall of the container 10 and the other scraper fits said first scraper so perfectly and with such accuracy and precision that it may be unfastened from the first scraper by removing certain screws and another scraper of a different size put in its place and quickly screwed tight to the first scraper. The edges of the two scrapers fit so perfectly as to provide what is in actual use the same as one scraper in one piece.

In filling the base materials above mentioned, I may use highly absorbent, or partially absorbent materials to begin with, but if the material is all cotton, or has a cotton warp or a cotton weft I prefer that thenatural gum and the oil and other foreign material which is in the goods and which may have got therein at the cotton weaving plant, shall be entirely removed and that the cotton material shall be made as highly absorbent as possible. This will enable me to better fill and coat the cotton threads. If the material used contains silk threads that are natural silk, I may make the goods highly absorbent or may leave all of the natural gum or part of the natural gum in the threads, according to the use to be made of the finished material. For certain uses it is satisfactory to leave the natural gum in I the goods and calender them and add any of the above mentioned coating materials to one or both faces, being careful to completely fill the interstices of the silk material.

I may use a wood-pulp paper, a rag paper or part rag paper, or a paper that is absorbent on one side and that has been coated at the paper mill on the opposite face and then as above described fill the absorbent portion of the paper with any of the above mentioned cellulose ester or other filling materials, including cellulose, or I may fill same with a starch and oil compound and process and dry same and calender and friction calender same and then add one or more coats of a pyroxylin or other material, including cellulose, or I may add one or more coats of any of the coating materials herein mentioned, on one or both faces of said paper. I prefer to submitsaid material to a final friction calendering, passing same through the rolls oneor more times until the desired sheen and gloss has been provided on at least one surface of the paper. The processing as'described with pyroxylin cement or other pyroxylin material, or with cellulose ester material such as cellulose acetate, will give much additional strength to the paper material, as is also the case if animal or other glue in solution be used to fill the absorbent portion 'of the said paper material, or I may first fill with other material and add an adhesive material of any suitable kind as a final coating, friction calender-ing the surface thoroughly, after drying the said coating.

For certain uses, I utilize the base materials of my said co-pending applications, including those which have impervious cellulose ester coatings or films which do not destroy the absorbent capacity of the fibres or threads composing said base materials, and I may fill the absorbent body portion of sa d materials with an adhesive material, or with a tracing cloth compound, or with starch, or with starch to which a slight amount of oil has been added, or I may fill same with the same kind of cellulose solution used for the first surface coating or film.

Another method of filling the base materials of said copending applications which carry a surface coating of cellulose material which does not appreciably impair the absorbency of the body portion is to immerse the base materials in the filling solution and then pass the base materials through pressure rolls and remove the surplus filling material and then evaporate the solvent material of the filling material by passing the base material through an evaporating chamber heated to the necessary temperature to entirely evaporate said solvent material, or drying said filled material in any suitable or desirable manner. Any of the base materials may be festooned or put over racks in long curved folds for slow drying either in the open air or in heated chambers. After the base material has been filled there is not usually the necessity for quick evaporation of solvent material or for quick'drying of the filling or coating material, as is the case in providing the coated materials of my co-pend ing applications because they have to be dried and the solvent material evaporated before the absorbent capacity of the base materials is seriously impaired.

The cloth base materials used in providing 1 materials of the character herein described may be woven very closely and compactly in plain weaves or in any of the weaves described in my copending applications, including skip weaves or weaves wherein one type of the woven threads, 1 after passing a thread of the other type then passes over a plurality of adjacent threads of the other type on one surface of said material, whereby the skipping threads may be more closely drawn together to provide more threads in 120 a given space than in a plain weave; or I may usea material having a silk warp made up as follows: the silk warp threads containing all or part of the natural gum (if they are long fibre silk threads of natural silk) and skipping or 125 passing over a plurality of the filling threads on one surface of the member or material whereby they may be placed closely together and form a smoother surface than is possible with a basket weave or plain weave material or member; or I 130 may use a skip weave comprising a set of warp threads and a set of filling or weft threads so woven that the threads of one set are exposed on the surface to a greater extent than on the opposite surface. s

I prefer to use base materials wherein the threads forming the warp are of like material and character and the threads forming the weft or filling are alike, although the weft threads may be entirely different in every way as to size 140 and character and material from the warp threads. I do not limit myself as to weaves or as to the thickness or character of the base materials used for providing the filled fibrous materials of the present application, so long as the desired improved materials are attained. The addition of pyroxylin and other films or coatings to at least one surface of the base material used for tracing cloth and for other uses before the said base material has had its absorbent capacity seriously or entirely impaired and destroyed, adds great strength and durability to said base materials. Where very thin materials give increased transparency, such as for tracing materials, it is highly desirable to have the added strength which pyroxylin coatings give and even for certain uses for tracing cloth, I may take absorbent silk or part silk material, or absorbent base materials of any cloth material and immerse them in a pyroxylin cement or other cellulose ester or cellulose acetate solution and remove the surplus material by any suitable means such as metal pressure rolls and dry said material thoroughly and then Swiss calender and friction calender same to secure the desired gloss on one face and to reduce the thickness of said material. If a pyroxylin material containing no color of any kind is used and the filled material is friction calendered six or eight times, the finished product is highly transparent, fiexible and unusually tough and strong, Where paper material is to be handled a great deal, as for example the large cards of the Patent Ofiice on which are printed the various patents issued, increased durability and wearing qualities are added by taking absorbent or partially absorbent card board material and filling same in any of the ways hereinabove described for cloth and paper materials and using pyroxylin or cellulose ester material as the filling material. The material should be calendered to suit the requirements of the particular use. The cellulose material may be used for filling and then over this filled paper material may be applied coats of any other desirable coating material. It is possible to print on cellulose coated paper card material so that the printing is easily legible and so that it to the necessary extent gets into the surface.

order to get the full benefit of blade 16, I utilize the tank 21 and the discharge pipe 22, leading to the container 10 and provided with a suitable valve 23 for regulating the feed of the coating material to the container. By means of this latter equipment, I regulate the flow of the solution with which I fill or coat the web or base, from the tank 21 into the container 10,so as to maintain the level of the solution in the container about half way up the series of holes shown at 51.

' Since the blade 16 rests lightly on the moving web or base, the solution in the container 10 is constantly drawn by said web or base from the front part of the container underneath the blade- 16 and into the rear part 'of said container. There ,is a constant, continuous, uniform flow of the solution from front to rear during the operation of filling or coating the moving base or web, since the base or web always travels at uniform and continuous speed of travel and since the width of the solution in container 10 is always maintained absolutely uniform and the blade 16 is maintained absolutely level clear across the cloth so that it contacts with like force clear across the surface of the moving web or base and there is the same space and opening for the moving web to draw the solution from front to rear clear across the edge of said blade 16. This blade has a rounded, but thin edge, which is not in any sense a knife edge or cutting edge. The material moves from front to rear and up in the rear compartment and flows back through the holes at 51 into the front compartment again and this circulation is continuous during the filling and coating operation. If the level of the solution in the rear compartment rises above the upper portion of said holes 51, and the level in the first compartment or front part of container 10 is below the holes, no harm will result. If, however, the solution is pyroxylin or a cellulose ester material in a highly volatile solvent, and both compartments are filled above the upper portion of said holes 51, the circulation of the solution will stop and harm will quickly result. In this event, it is well to shut off the flow for a few seconds which is coming from tank 21 and then regulate the flow correctly for the rest of the coating operation so as to keep the level of the solution of the container 10 just above the lower middle line of said holes 51. For certain operations, especially where a non-impregnating coating is to be given to a highly absorbent base material and it is desirable to apply said solution and dry same without seriously impairing the absorbing capacity of the base material, and the body portion thereof, this circulation must be maintained, otherwise streaks and uncoated spots and spaces will result. This would be especially detrimental in providing the silk tracing cloth materials of the present application which have a friction calendering first and then on said friction calendered surface are given a coating of pyroxyln and then after drying same the material is turned over and the body portion is filled with a tracing cloth compound, or with a starch compound or starch to which a slight amount of oil has been added.

The thin materials described herein may be used with greater efiiciency for tracing cloth, inkcarrier ribbons and the other uses herein mentioned than present materials due to the added strength and to greater transparency for certain 120 uses and in the case of the long fibre silk materials, due to these advantages or the advantages inherent in long fibre silk threads and fibres over ordinary spun threads or fibres of cotton or linen.

The base material may be of any form desired 125 and may have out edges, fastened or not, or may have woven edges.

I do not limit myself to the particular materials, quantities, or steps or processes described, so long as the improved results are attained, as it is read- 130 ily apparent that widely different variations of my invention may be made without departing from the spirit thereof.

I claim:

l. A non-printing ink carrier ribbon to trans- 135 fer ink from an inking means to a type-struck printing ribbon, said ink carrier ribbon being substantially non-absorbent for ink and comprising silk filled with a tracing cloth compound to render the ribbon similar to tracing cloth.

2. A ribbon as in claim 1 wherein the silk is long-fibered natural silk.

3. A ribbon as in claim 1 wherein it is friction calendered on atleast one surface.

4. A non-printing ink carrier ribbon to trans- 145 fer ink from an inking means to a type-struck printing ribbon, said ink carrier ribbon being substantially non-absorbent for ink and comprising silk filled with a compound including starch and having at least one polished face.

with a compound including starch, and having at least one highly polished face.

7. A non-printing ink carrier ribbon to transfer ink trom an inking means to a type-struck printing ribbon, said ink carrier ribbon being substantially non-absorbent for ink and filled with a compound including starch, and having a uniform thickness not exceeding .0025 of an inch.

. "GEORGE E. PELTON. 

